No one mentioned city council candidate Jonathan Pearlman’s name during last week’s city council debate about an election law change for Boca Raton. But Pearlman was the subject of the debate.
Mayor Scott Singer had proposed raising the standard for proving that a candidate for mayor or the council has lived in the city for the required one year. Candidates now must show two residency documents, such as deeds and utility bills. Singer wanted that increased to three.
Notably, Singer also wanted the council—as the staff memo indicated—to align Boca Raton with state law when it comes to a potential candidate’s voting history.
Floridians can’t register to vote anywhere except their legal address. Candidates in Boca Raton must have lived in the city for at least one year before the start of the qualifying period for the election in question. For the March 10 election, the qualifying period began last Nov. 3.
The change that Singer proposed—and the council approved unanimously—provides that “if a candidate’s voting history during the 12 months preceding the first day of the qualifying period reflects that the candidate cast a ballot in a precinct corresponding to an address located outside the city, such voting constitutes objective evidence of claimed residence at that non-city location.” In that case, “The candidate did not satisfy the city’s one-year residency requirement.”
Councilman Marc Wigder, who Pearlman is challenging for Seat B on the city council, has alluded for weeks to Pearlman’s lack of voting history in Boca Raton. In an interview after the meeting, Singer confirmed that the allegation was behind the new ordinance.
Wigder told me that Pearlman registered to vote in Boca Raton about a year ago, which would have been well after the deadline for doing so. Under the new ordinance, candidates must submit their voter registration card.
When Pearlman qualified, he submitted a deed and some utility bills. The water and sewer bill, though, was in the name of the entity that owned the lot before the house was built—498 NE 8th Street LLC. That entity was tied to the Sachs Sax Caplan law firm in Boca Raton.
The deed was also in the name of the entity. Its “post office address” matched the one in Palm Beach that also appears on Pearlman’s real estate license. In December 2024, ownership of the home—with a market value of almost $7 million—was transferred to Pearlman’s trust. Pearlman’s name is also on the property record, perhaps because the house has a homestead exemption. A trust can’t claim the exemption.
Oddly, Pearlman also submitted pictures of himself and his children. There is no explanation of where they were taken.
Pearlman has refused many requests from me to explain what he supposedly was doing in Boca Raton before starting Save Boca last summer to seek a vote on the Terra/Frisbie project. On Monday, he did not return a call asking about his voting record. As noted previously, Pearlman refused to complete the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s candidate questionnaire and to participate in the candidate interviews.
With money from sources he won’t reveal, Pearlman has spent almost $250,000 promoting himself and Save Boca.
Delray commissioners to attempt preservation of baynan tree on city golf course
Delray Beach will make a last-ditch attempt to save a large banyan tree on the city’s main golf course.
After Mayor Tom Carney called a special meeting Feb. 18, the city commission at last week’s meeting authorized City Manager Terrence Moore to send an arborist’s report to the Lake Worth Drainage District. The district board voted to have Delray Beach remove the tree under a 1994 contract.
The district provides the second level of flood control in southeast Palm Beach County, after the South Florida Water Management District. Drainage district staff members believe that a strong storm could cause the tree to fall into the district’s E-4 Canal, creating a dam. The backup, staff members say, would cause massive flooding.
The report, though, will challenge that idea by following the argument Carney made during the special meeting. In a catastrophic storm, Carney claimed, many other factors would contribute to flooding emergencies.
Though the Drainage District Board agreed to grant the city a rehearing at next Wednesday’s meeting, city commissioners expressed skepticism during that Feb. 18 meeting.
Commissioner Thomas Markert attended the January meeting at which the board denied the city’s request to preserve the tree. The board, Markert said, made a persuasive case. He noted that 90% of the tree is on the district’s property. Keeping the tree, Markert said, would mean Delray Beach assuming liability for all damage from flooding if the tree fell. According to the district, a blockage would cause “Boynton Beach to flood.” Commissioner Juli Casale called the potential consequences for Delray Beach “catastrophic.”
Carney persisted. He argued that the contract with the district is flawed. He claimed that the district didn’t give the city enough notice to make its case. He maintained that Delray Beach could indemnify itself against damage claims.
And, this being Delray Beach, the meeting had to include angry personal exchanges.
One day before the meeting, the Delray Guzette newsletter—seemingly Carney’s proxy—said Markert “failed” to persuade the district to side with the city. Markert said that the comment in “your goofy newsletter” was “one of the most despicable things you’ve said.” Carney, Markert and Casale repeatedly interrupted each other before City Manager Terrence Moore—again—intervened to restore order.
I’ll have more next week.
Delray Beach approves new noise ordinance
In calmer fashion, the city commission last week approved Delray Beach’s new noise ordinance and enforcement plan.
Code enforcement officers will use monitors to investigate complaints. Decibel levels will seek to address the two main complaints—excessive noise in the entertainment district and loud lawn care equipment.
Staff will report back in July with results from the trial period—four months of enforcement. In response to predictions of massive complaints, Carney said, “I don’t think it will be as bad as people think.”
Speaker during Boca City Council meeting makes a bizarre ask
I’ve heard many strange comments about the Terra/Frisbie project over the last few months. Few have been stranger than the one at a city council meeting last month.
Boca Raton voters have received dozens of mailers in advance of the March 10 election. Many have come from A Better Boca Raton. It’s the Tallahassee-based political action committee that functions as the campaign vehicle for Terra Development and Frisbie Group. In addition to the mailers, Terra/Frisbie runs TV and social media ads touting the project.
Some speakers who oppose the project have complained to council members about what they consider “lies” in the mailers. But one speaker demanded that the council call the outlets and stop the ads. “Can’t you do something?”
No. Whatever one thinks of Terra/Frisbie’s campaign, the council has no jurisdiction over the ads. And one could argue that ads for some project opponents also contain “lies.”
That’s why they’re called ads.
House Democrats urge censure of Randy Fine
Last month, after a Palestinian-American organizer in New York called dogs “unclean,” U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, R-Florida, wrote on social media, “If they force us to choose, the choice between Muslims and dogs is not a difficult one.”
The organizer wrote in response to seeing dog feces on snowdrifts after the blizzard that hit the Northeast. Some Muslims don’t consider dogs suitable household pets. Without Fine, the comment might have drawn little notice.
Democrats demanded that the House censure Fine. He followed up with what he calls the Protecting Puppies From Sharia Act. It would deny federal funding to state or local governments that prohibit dog ownership. There are none.
But this is the same Randy Fine who said of Gazans seeking humanitarian relief, “Let them eat rockets.” And, so no one forgets, this is the same Randy Fine who Gov. Ron DeSantis wanted to be president of Florida Atlantic University.
